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Good! I‘ll go long on them. Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremel

by nunez 5y ago

Good! I‘ll go long on them. Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremely-niche and highly knowledgeable communities in the same session. Heck, I get my HN updates from Reddit now. Facebook/Instagram/TikTok are nothing like this in that the info you get is wholly dependent on your social graph. Twitter has very high quality content, but it’s a firehose that is very difficult to curate and keep up with. Reddit is democratizing in a sense, like riding the NYC subway. An even wilder bet: Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse (as a news outlet of sorts, on steroids) and even potentially minimize the need for Google Search. Anecdotally, a VERY LARGE percentage of my Google searches end in “site:reddit.com” these days. Reddit posts, especially from smaller subs, tend to be higher quality and don’t have ulterior motives (ad revenue). If Reddit’s Lucene cluster were better, between that and SO, I’d use Google a handful of times a week. Maybe this IPO can help fund that. If the ad revenue from the whale subs allow me to continue learning about interior design, supply chain logistics, the inner workings of car sales, finance and tax strategies if I become high net worth, and more, I’m here for it.

pibechorro 5y ago
Reddit has been steadily going to shit. They became incredibly trigger happy censoring anything and anyone outside of the echo chamber there. I still visit it, but I am short on them.
sombremesa 5y ago
> Twitter has very high quality content Can you give me an example? I have zero followers/following on Twitter and just use Tweetdeck so I'd like to know what I should be looking for.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  @foone is always a good bet, if you are interested in old technology.
  - theshrike79 5y ago
    Just be prepared for "this tweet thread should've been a blogpost" -style tweeting :) (Yes they have ADHD and this helps etc etc, I know).
eloisius 5y ago
I have less rosy predictions about what this IPO will do. I doubt it will fund better search. In fact, I’m thinking it will push it more into the ‘relevancy’ territory where you get a slurry of slightly related results, incoherent reco sys content curation, and deviation from vote and time decay ranking in favor of inscrutable algorithmic content feed ordering. All these things will make Reddit more successful from a mass market perspective.
- superfrank 5y ago
  > I doubt it will fund better search While I think better search would be great for users, I'm convinced Reddit doesn't actually want better search. Good search means I can easily find an old post with the answer to my questions. Bad search means I end up going to a subreddit and posting the same question that's been asked 15 times. Even if it's removed by the mods, it'll likely get one or two comments and votes before it does. Bad search drives more engagement.
  - valdiorn 5y ago
    What really gets me is people who don't seem to understand how to search for information online. If you go to something like /r/wearethemusicmakers (a sub for music making, mostly based around computers and software) you'll see people asking questions like "what is an audio interface and why do I need one?" You can type that question into google verbatim and find dozens of high production value Youtube videos explaining exactly what an audio interface is. Yet a shocking number of people opt to type this question into Reddit and then wait 8 hours for other users to post answers. Are people really this incompetent at finding information online nowadays?
    - pferde 5y ago
      Not incompetent, they just don't think of the Internet as a place to get information. Most people, from what I observed, view Internet as a place to buy stuff, be entertained, and perhaps to talk to people. The idea that you could get first-hand information for free, instead of relying on second-hand information from others, simply does not enter the picture for them.
emptyfile 5y ago
>Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse what is the metaverse? what are you talking about?
aahortwwy 5y ago
> Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse Why do people keep talking about the metaverse like it already exists and is a huge part of our future? It's vaporware right now. Are we all so susceptible to marketing that we've just accepted that if Meta is going all-in on a thing it must be both real and a guaranteed win?
- dustymcp 5y ago
  I have 1 Friend that has var goggles, and he does not like the chat funktion it just seems like its dead in the water unless var Prices come down hard..
  - alasdair_ 5y ago
    Quest is under $300 and is fantastic for what you get and is completely self-contained and portable. More importantly, Meta and Apple are both launching AR glasses next near (or maybe Q1 2023) and at that point AR will start to have its “iphone” moment where it starts our nice then suddenly everyone has one.
    - moffkalast 5y ago
      Yeah if you like ads and like all your movement being data mined. It also has the worst FoV of any headset on the market, which basically equals the amount of immersion you get out of it. You're better off with a smartphone cardboard thing or saving up for a real headset. Personally I'm waiting for the next gen ones, the current ones are all still too terrible in price to performance.
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  Meta has made a full announcement of vaporware, but the metaverse is specifically not Meta's property, nor do they get to define what the metaverse is/will become. In that sense, I agree with you we should ignore the marketing, and I also think we should talk about the metaverse as we talk about the web, not as some rigid concept, but more a vague idea of a thing in VR.
jonny_eh 5y ago
> Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremely-niche and highly knowledgeable communities in the same session. Sounds similar to Twitter and YouTube.
- ungamedplayer 5y ago
  I have yet to find any quality content on twitter.
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    There is some, but it is mostly not the popular content or anything that trends. It is people orientated, so for me it is mostly a curated list of links.
  - andybak 5y ago
    Twitter really depends on who you follow. I've no idea how I got to the point where I have an interesting feed and attempts to follow the same process on Instagram have so far failed.
bonestamp2 5y ago
I love reddit as a user. But, I would not have considered investing in them since it seems like they've struggled to make money... but according to the article, Q2 ad revenue was $100 million (3x YoY).
silisili 5y ago
Genuinely curious...are you old enough to remember Digg and what happened to it? I don't mean that to be patronizing...but I remember being on Digg and Reddit being a weird alternative. And after a series of huge mistakes, almost overnight Reddit was flooded with users and Digg relegated to nothing. It really opened my eyes to how quickly an empire built only on its users can disappear.
- hericium 5y ago
  > It really opened my eyes to how quickly an empire built only on its users can disappear. Reminds me of the Freenode IRC network which pretty much stopped existing[1][2] overnight. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_conflict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_... [2] https://gist.github.com/prawnsalad/4ca20da6c2295ddb06c1646791c61953 https://gist.github.com/prawnsalad/4ca20da6c2295ddb06c164679...
  - skinnymuch 5y ago
    Similar to my response to the OP, the comparisons don’t work because IRC as a whole, no less one network, are not empires. Reddit did a god awful redesign. Then piled on forcing their official mobile app usage by limiting the site more and more. Unlike the small geeky IRC world, none of this did anything to curb Reddit popularity. While it’s entirely possibly an equivalent move in IRC or some other niche geeky place would have an exodus or major consequences. Reddit has banned a number of subreddits too. With hundreds of thousands of active members. None of this curbs its popularity. And not everything they ban is problematic like inappropriate non consensual sexual posts or aggressive bigotry. Reddit gains more users than all of Digg had at its peak at least twice a year or so. If it’s growing at 20% year over year Digg peaked at 30M monthly users. A few social network site numbers from a year ago[0]: “Reddit revealed that it now has 52 million daily users, and the number appears to be growing quickly. Reddit told The Wall Street Journal that daily usage grew 44 percent year over year for October” “Twitter has 187 million daily users, Snap has 249 million, and Facebook has 1.82 billion” These are daily. Not monthly like Digg. For monthly, Reddit is nearing 500M. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21754984/reddit-dau-daily-users-revealed https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21754984/reddit-dau-daily...
twelvechairs 5y ago
Problem with Reddit is being very replaceable. People don't want to lose their facebook/instagram/linkedin page because it has their content and also personal connections. Profiles on Reddit are more like Digg / Slashdot / Kuro5hin - few care about losing their post history and connections so when a competing site comes in with better features (fewer ads / different site-wide moderation approach / not looking so awful by default ) people will just move there.
- dageshi 5y ago
  Nope, any competitor just becomes a dumping ground for all the nasty shit that reddit has banned. If it were that simple, it would've been done by now, it certainly has been tried multiple times.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
throwaway1777 5y ago
Tiktok is not really based on your social graph. I think it’s kinda like Reddit in some ways but far less in depth content and actual interaction.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Tiktok is for a TV audience and that will bring them massive user numbers. It can indeed be entertaining from time to time, but consumption of content is extremely passive.
- nunez 5y ago
  You are correct in that it's not based on an explicit social graph (i.e. who I tag as my "friend"), but it is based on an implicit social graph (i.e. who I like watching/listening to).
raxxorrax 5y ago
> Anecdotally, a VERY LARGE percentage of my Google searches end in “site:reddit.com” these days. Compared to platforms like Discord they have the advantage that their content is actually discoverable by search engines. I hate the push to Discord since that basically makes you invisible. I get that it is convenient, but it has a lot of negative side effects that aren't obvious at first.
- naasking 5y ago
  > I hate the push to Discord since that basically makes you invisible. That can also be a feature going forward given today's climate. Many people have lost jobs or not been hired after prospective employers did a simple Google search.
- iosonofuturista 5y ago
  Which also one of the reasons I loathe the move from open BB forums to Facebook on the niche/ hobby communities. That we are repeating the mistake with discord, is very unfortunate.
  - LewisVerstappen 5y ago
    Reddit really has the possibility of integrating Discord's functionality into the site if they make their chat product less shit. That would be the best of both worlds in my opinion.
- lordgrenville 5y ago
  And in addition even if you're in the server and find what you're looking for, it's very hard to concentrate all the responses to a specific post, so you might find the question but need to scroll for ages to see if someone answered. Not that either of these issues deterred people from using IRC.
- nmaleki 5y ago
  There are solutions to problems hidden in these chats that will never be found. Personally, I've been using Discord as a powerful search engine. Luckily, the search functionality works well enough to where I can often find what I'm looking for. But this might only be a short term solution to an issue that needs an archive.
dataengineer56 5y ago
> Reddit is democratizing in a sense Apart from the bit where all of the main subreddits (and therefore the front page) are controlled by completely unvetted, unpaid moderators, who tend to be Extremely Online People. I don't understand how Facebook are continuously attacked by politicians for not moderating content well enough when they have towers full of paid moderators, while Reddit continues unaffected. > Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse Does anyone actually care about the metaverse? Everyone I know thinks it's some kind of joke. It seems like Silicon Valley nonsense.
- dageshi 5y ago
  Facebook gets attacked because politicians believe it can be used to nudge peoples opinions en mass but in a way that's hard to detect. Reddit doesn't because everyone can see what's going on. You might not like it, but you can see it.
  - dataengineer56 5y ago
    I'd have agreed with you 10 years ago when the average Redditor was arguably smarter than your typical social media user and each subreddit's alliances were clear. These days I completely disagree and feel Reddit is more dangerous than other forms of social media. The average Redditor still believes that they're more intelligent and believes that they're seeing balanced information (because how can upvotes and downvotes lie?), while being blind to all of the astroturfing and agendas placed by the people who run subreddits.
    - dageshi 5y ago
      Reddit was never and has never been about balanced information, I think the entire purpose of the site was never balanced information it was what was most popular with a particular subs hive mind, 10 years ago we just had different echo chambers. The thing that changed was that new generations of users started to use the site, younger millennials and gen z. And their echo chambers differ from the previous generation of reddit users echo chambers and are broadly incompatible because echo chambers usually edge to the extremes on both sides.
simonebrunozzi 5y ago
> Good! I‘ll go long on them. Nothing specific on Reddit, but I'd like to point out that when you go long on a stock, you should at least try to possess some specific knowledge that most people don't have about that company. Reddit might be great; but if everyone knows about it, then the price is going to reflect that already.
- snek_case 5y ago
  > Reddit might be great; but if everyone knows about it, then the price is going to reflect that already. I think that's the wrong way to look at stocks. What you're describing goes along with the common belief that all known information is already "priced in". This is silly. The price of a stock reflects the consensus/average estimation of the worth of the company. Your personal assessment is going to depend on what you personally believe in, but you could be holding a minority viewpoint. If 95% of investors believe that a company will have 10B in revenue in 5 years, but you interpret the facts differently and believe (correctly) that the company will make 50B in 5 years, then even though you are basing your estimation on the same facts as everyone else, if the majority interprets the facts incorrectly, then the information is not "priced in". As the company proves itself successful, the consensus estimate will shift. People will reassess their belief that certain outcomes are more or less likely. What matters isn't necessarily having information that other investors don't have, it's interpreting that information better than others, and making more accurate inferences. When it comes to reddit, more specifically, you probably don't have access to any more information than every analyst on wall street, but there's a key difference, which is that most of these people probably have never used reddit, and have a very limited understanding of how it works or its potential. So, in some ways, your understanding of the functioning of reddit, as a reddit user, could actually give you an edge.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    > but there's a key difference, which is that most of these people probably have never used reddit, and have a very limited understanding of how it works or its potential. Why would you think this?
- 5y ago
Foobar8568 5y ago
I rarely Google without using site at first, reddit, SO/exchange, and two French forums (teaching related queries). Anything else from Google /search engine is garbage.
smolder 5y ago
Stop taking "the metaverse" seriously, please. It's a rich idiots dream, like a digital Fordlandia. I can hardly blame people for trying to follow trends, because following trends can be lucrative. "The metaverse" is just not the one to follow. It's nintendos virtualboy, vision getting ahead of substance, fixing problems we don't have. If it succeeds at all, it will be a testament to societies ability to bend to the whims of rich idiots. In Facebooks case, they should really try their hand at making a 2D world that doesn't lead people to want to die before they try to expand on the whole reality thing.
- loa_in_ 5y ago
  I'm getting really angry at companies squatting names that are basically common nouns. This practice should be banned. It's something I though was more cyberdystopian-esque not reality, but here we are in the future.
  - epistasis 5y ago
    A land value tax solves this.
    - intrasight 5y ago
      A land value tax in the metaverse - I hadn't considered that before. I wonder what cryptocurrency will be used in the metaverse?
      - gomox 5y ago
        You should probably google "Decentraland".
    - Nasrudith 5y ago
      A land value tax for names? Or well copyrighted ones. I suppose brand reputation could have a value. It could also lead to companies cycling names for cheapness. Imagine say using Toyota-2022 as the offical name for Toyota. The notion sounds a bit silly on the surface, but good enough at least for serious classroom discussions and evaluation.
askvictor 5y ago
Eventually, it will go the same way Facebook has gone, and email before that. Was once fun and useful, now, at best, a tool and a chore.
gremlinsinc 5y ago
I feel like there's some of the most foul...obnoxious...people on Reddit...but at least they're not the same people in FB groups... which is to say they're my obnoxious sycophant people. In other words...social media can really showcase the best/worst of people but Reddit kinda at least can give some intellectual content and discussion. I also kinda just 'get' the snark/culture of reddit as it were, and interestingly enough it doesn't matter my political persuasion as there's enough different corners of reddit to find where I fit in. People are also more willing to share their real thoughts when there's some measure of anonymity whether that's good or bad, who knows. Reddit + HN is basically my source of news/new thoughts. Best part of reddit is that topics are generally single groups, where there's like 5 yard sale groups on FB JUST for my city in a county with 45k people in rural utah, on FB nothing's stopping there being 2 or 200 SLC groups, but on reddit - everyone just would go to the one w/ the most subscribers/content/activity.... FB is nothing but memes or people trying to sell something. Of course Reddit going public will probably make it incentivized to turn more of a profit and go that way as well. My only real gripe w/ Reddit is that I can't use the login via Relay on Android because something's jacked w/ my main account... if I go to user/prefs I get an error after a long wait...and it's been reported for a few months and no fix...
kypro 5y ago
I'm so split on Reddit. While I agree with most of what you said the decline in quality of both content and comments, and the extreme moderation which has occurred over the last 4-5 years would really worry me if I was an investor. Presumably as a public company they would come under even more scrutiny for edgy content and feel the need to moderate content even more. And in general as the size of a social site's user base increases, the quality of the content drops as content starts to reflect the common denominator of its users. I also feel like all social media the there are very toxic aspects to Reddit. I used to be very active on there, but after receiving constant abuse and very few constructive replies I now rarely participate in discussions there. Again with the company going public like Facebook and Twitter, Reddit could come under more scrutiny for this. Assuming you buy for a fair valuation I don't think it's a bad investment per say, but I think there are a lot of risks there. I find myself wishing for an alternative to Reddit a lot these days because I really miss the high quality discussions I used to have there 10 or so years ago.
- Valakas_ 5y ago
  I agree with you about the abuse aspect. That's one thing this could change. I would for example change the voting system to not allow a negative score. It doesn't happen often, but it still doesn't feel good that people disagree and not only do they not upvote, but they downvote until you get negative score. In my opinion if you disagree don't upvote, or at least downvote until 0. So people know the overall sentiment is negative, but there's not need to show how negative it is. If it's so bad to be offesive or innacurate, then report it. But downvoting until it's negative feels really overkill and feels like at the moment everyone not only disagrees, but hates you. The constructive replies you talk about depends on the subreddit. There are subreddits that are literally lifesavers. For example subreddits to overcome emotional abuse and abusive relationships, you'll find support there that is simply amazing and not abusive at all. Or subreddits about certain niches that people are passionate about. Unfortunately toxic people are sadistic and get a kick out of abusing people, so it's bound to happen. Best way is to report it, so the moderators either warn the person or ban them.
  - PickledHotdog 5y ago
StevePerkins 5y ago
> Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse I agree. But first they'll have to get on the blockchain, and then build up their autonomous vehicle division. No big deal, just use CRISPR.
SamuelAdams 5y ago
Agreed, one sub in particular is /r/lawncare. There is a very helpful post for beginners that puts together the whole process from spring through fall. This is the kind of non-paid for content shill that makes niche communities really interesting. https://reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/fb1gjj/a_beginners_guide_to_improving_your_lawn_this/ https://reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/fb1gjj/a_beginners_gu...
intrasight 5y ago
I had a Reddit account for five years but never logged in. Until about six months ago when I rediscovered Reddit. I now spend more time on Reddit than the rest of the internet combined. I have a personal account and a work account. For work stuff, it's catching up with Stackoverflow in my technical discussions. For personal stuff, I don't even know of a comparable site. I am a small BI consultancy and I would definitely spend ad money on Reddit once they get their shit together.
chartpath 5y ago
Whenever I need to query the hive mind I just search directly on Reddit now, after a long period of searching in google with the keyword "reddit" included. If I am querying something technical for work or hobby development I use the HN Algolia search. Twitter is the only other social network I keep an account on, but barely ever visit because of the firehose of noise despite having a painstakingly selected list of accounts followed. E.g. lots of journalists doing great work, but also posting a lot of personal life updates that are not relevant to me.
nebula8804 5y ago
Everything you described makes this public offering a potential bad thing. Whats going to happen when activist investors want a certain subreddit/post removed? What about ad companies not liking some content/subreddit? Moderation is going to get very strict. The relative anonymity of reddit may disappear. We have already seen the establishment supposedly co-opt the big subreddits like /r/politics. Now they will focus on snuffing out all the little guys on the platform. Everything you listed as a positive may disappear over time. HN might become what Reddit is now. On the flip side the difficulty of removing posts here/simple upvote system/other limiting features may prevent that from ever happening. There have been attempts to clone Reddit, all have been terrible. Its clear that to create an equivalent, its going to take more than a weekend project.
foobarian 5y ago
> Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremely-niche and highly knowledgeable communities in the same session. For now. Just watch what happens to it under constant pressure from Wall Street to grow and grow and grow...
BeFlatXIII 5y ago
> An even wilder bet: Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse (as a news outlet of sorts, on steroids) and even potentially minimize the need for Google Search. Doing so will first require the Reddit team to develop a competent search engine. Searching Google or DDG with site:reddit.com is far better than native Reddit search for topics. The Camas Reddit search is what you need for a power search to find that one post that you swear you've read five years ago. Neither use case is well-served by the current search implementation on Reddit itself.
phkahler 5y ago
>> Anecdotally, a VERY LARGE percentage of my Google searches end in “site:reddit.com” these days. That seems strange to me. Most of my search results don't lead there. This seems like something worth investigating on your part. Maybe google knows you like reddit, tend to follow links there, and hence puts them higher in your search rankings? Is that a thing with google? I think it may be based on my own past experience too.
- cloverich 5y ago
  OP is adding `site:reddit.com` to tell Google to find results from reddit instead of elsewhere. If their workflow is like mine, it goes 1. enter search, 2. get frustrated with spammy / marketing / ad results, 3. limit to reddit, 4. find thoughtful human with genuine answer / feedback.
- rkuykendall-com 5y ago
  I think it would be worth investigating on your part as well. Next time you do a Google search that will be heavily populated by blog spam and listicles, append “site:reddit.com” to instead get long user-rank-sorted discussions among actual human beings.
- thomastjeffery 5y ago
  If Reddit were higher in their search rankings, they wouldn't need to add site:reddit.com to their search words. I also find searching Reddit, especially for introductory advice, to be very commonly useful. Since Reddit's search sucks, I usually use duckduckgo or Google to search it.
- Trasmatta 5y ago
  I think you misunderstand, OP is purposefully adding "site:reddit.com" to their search query, to only get results from Reddit. Google isn't adding it for them. I do this sometimes too, because it's one of the ways to get actual opinions on something, and not just worthless blog spam.
  - phkahler 5y ago
pjc50 5y ago
I would certainly bet on them going up in the short term. However, going public carries more scrutiny, and that means their two existing problems will be catapulted into the public eye at some point, just as they have been for Facebook: - political extremism - very flimsy segregation of NSFW material (and usernames are basically not censored) I doubt they would be dumb enough to do a Tumblr, but it can't be ruled out entirely.
barfingclouds 5y ago
Yeah Reddit’s different because it’s not public. Fuck this news is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. The only thing I could imagine worse is if Wikipedia went public or got bought by saudi Arabian investors
Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
> Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremely-niche and highly knowledgeable communities in the same session. But for how long I wonder. Those niche communities continue to use Reddit because they can circumvent the dark-patterns and ads usually with a custom client. And those clients depend upon reddit API. We've seen in the past that once the community-focused Internet platforms get large, Especially when they go public then the API restrictions are soon to follow as advertiser's interest becomes primary and the majority users don't care as they're not in for those niche communities.

by nunez 5y ago

pibechorro 5y ago

Reddit has been steadily going to shit. They became incredibly trigger happy censoring anything and anyone outside of the echo chamber there. I still visit it, but I am short on them.

sombremesa 5y ago

> Twitter has very high quality content Can you give me an example? I have zero followers/following on Twitter and just use Tweetdeck so I'd like to know what I should be looking for.

mschuster91 5y ago
@foone is always a good bet, if you are interested in old technology.
- theshrike79 5y ago
  Just be prepared for "this tweet thread should've been a blogpost" -style tweeting :) (Yes they have ADHD and this helps etc etc, I know).

eloisius 5y ago

I have less rosy predictions about what this IPO will do. I doubt it will fund better search. In fact, I’m thinking it will push it more into the ‘relevancy’ territory where you get a slurry of slightly related results, incoherent reco sys content curation, and deviation from vote and time decay ranking in favor of inscrutable algorithmic content feed ordering. All these things will make Reddit more successful from a mass market perspective.

superfrank 5y ago
> I doubt it will fund better search While I think better search would be great for users, I'm convinced Reddit doesn't actually want better search. Good search means I can easily find an old post with the answer to my questions. Bad search means I end up going to a subreddit and posting the same question that's been asked 15 times. Even if it's removed by the mods, it'll likely get one or two comments and votes before it does. Bad search drives more engagement.
- valdiorn 5y ago
  What really gets me is people who don't seem to understand how to search for information online. If you go to something like /r/wearethemusicmakers (a sub for music making, mostly based around computers and software) you'll see people asking questions like "what is an audio interface and why do I need one?" You can type that question into google verbatim and find dozens of high production value Youtube videos explaining exactly what an audio interface is. Yet a shocking number of people opt to type this question into Reddit and then wait 8 hours for other users to post answers. Are people really this incompetent at finding information online nowadays?
  - pferde 5y ago
    Not incompetent, they just don't think of the Internet as a place to get information. Most people, from what I observed, view Internet as a place to buy stuff, be entertained, and perhaps to talk to people. The idea that you could get first-hand information for free, instead of relying on second-hand information from others, simply does not enter the picture for them.

emptyfile 5y ago

>Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse what is the metaverse? what are you talking about?

aahortwwy 5y ago

> Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse Why do people keep talking about the metaverse like it already exists and is a huge part of our future? It's vaporware right now. Are we all so susceptible to marketing that we've just accepted that if Meta is going all-in on a thing it must be both real and a guaranteed win?

dustymcp 5y ago
I have 1 Friend that has var goggles, and he does not like the chat funktion it just seems like its dead in the water unless var Prices come down hard..
- alasdair_ 5y ago
  Quest is under $300 and is fantastic for what you get and is completely self-contained and portable. More importantly, Meta and Apple are both launching AR glasses next near (or maybe Q1 2023) and at that point AR will start to have its “iphone” moment where it starts our nice then suddenly everyone has one.
  - moffkalast 5y ago
    Yeah if you like ads and like all your movement being data mined. It also has the worst FoV of any headset on the market, which basically equals the amount of immersion you get out of it. You're better off with a smartphone cardboard thing or saving up for a real headset. Personally I'm waiting for the next gen ones, the current ones are all still too terrible in price to performance.
makeitdouble 5y ago
Meta has made a full announcement of vaporware, but the metaverse is specifically not Meta's property, nor do they get to define what the metaverse is/will become. In that sense, I agree with you we should ignore the marketing, and I also think we should talk about the metaverse as we talk about the web, not as some rigid concept, but more a vague idea of a thing in VR.

jonny_eh 5y ago

ungamedplayer 5y ago
I have yet to find any quality content on twitter.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  There is some, but it is mostly not the popular content or anything that trends. It is people orientated, so for me it is mostly a curated list of links.
- andybak 5y ago
  Twitter really depends on who you follow. I've no idea how I got to the point where I have an interesting feed and attempts to follow the same process on Instagram have so far failed.

bonestamp2 5y ago

I love reddit as a user. But, I would not have considered investing in them since it seems like they've struggled to make money... but according to the article, Q2 ad revenue was $100 million (3x YoY).

silisili 5y ago

Genuinely curious...are you old enough to remember Digg and what happened to it? I don't mean that to be patronizing...but I remember being on Digg and Reddit being a weird alternative. And after a series of huge mistakes, almost overnight Reddit was flooded with users and Digg relegated to nothing. It really opened my eyes to how quickly an empire built only on its users can disappear.

hericium 5y ago
> It really opened my eyes to how quickly an empire built only on its users can disappear. Reminds me of the Freenode IRC network which pretty much stopped existing[1][2] overnight. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_conflict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_... [2] https://gist.github.com/prawnsalad/4ca20da6c2295ddb06c1646791c61953 https://gist.github.com/prawnsalad/4ca20da6c2295ddb06c164679...
- skinnymuch 5y ago
  Similar to my response to the OP, the comparisons don’t work because IRC as a whole, no less one network, are not empires. Reddit did a god awful redesign. Then piled on forcing their official mobile app usage by limiting the site more and more. Unlike the small geeky IRC world, none of this did anything to curb Reddit popularity. While it’s entirely possibly an equivalent move in IRC or some other niche geeky place would have an exodus or major consequences. Reddit has banned a number of subreddits too. With hundreds of thousands of active members. None of this curbs its popularity. And not everything they ban is problematic like inappropriate non consensual sexual posts or aggressive bigotry. Reddit gains more users than all of Digg had at its peak at least twice a year or so. If it’s growing at 20% year over year Digg peaked at 30M monthly users. A few social network site numbers from a year ago[0]: “Reddit revealed that it now has 52 million daily users, and the number appears to be growing quickly. Reddit told The Wall Street Journal that daily usage grew 44 percent year over year for October” “Twitter has 187 million daily users, Snap has 249 million, and Facebook has 1.82 billion” These are daily. Not monthly like Digg. For monthly, Reddit is nearing 500M. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21754984/reddit-dau-daily-users-revealed https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21754984/reddit-dau-daily...

twelvechairs 5y ago

Problem with Reddit is being very replaceable. People don't want to lose their facebook/instagram/linkedin page because it has their content and also personal connections. Profiles on Reddit are more like Digg / Slashdot / Kuro5hin - few care about losing their post history and connections so when a competing site comes in with better features (fewer ads / different site-wide moderation approach / not looking so awful by default ) people will just move there.

dageshi 5y ago
Nope, any competitor just becomes a dumping ground for all the nasty shit that reddit has banned. If it were that simple, it would've been done by now, it certainly has been tried multiple times.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

throwaway1777 5y ago

Tiktok is not really based on your social graph. I think it’s kinda like Reddit in some ways but far less in depth content and actual interaction.

raxxorrax 5y ago
Tiktok is for a TV audience and that will bring them massive user numbers. It can indeed be entertaining from time to time, but consumption of content is extremely passive.
nunez 5y ago
You are correct in that it's not based on an explicit social graph (i.e. who I tag as my "friend"), but it is based on an implicit social graph (i.e. who I like watching/listening to).

raxxorrax 5y ago

> Anecdotally, a VERY LARGE percentage of my Google searches end in “site:reddit.com” these days. Compared to platforms like Discord they have the advantage that their content is actually discoverable by search engines. I hate the push to Discord since that basically makes you invisible. I get that it is convenient, but it has a lot of negative side effects that aren't obvious at first.

naasking 5y ago
> I hate the push to Discord since that basically makes you invisible. That can also be a feature going forward given today's climate. Many people have lost jobs or not been hired after prospective employers did a simple Google search.
iosonofuturista 5y ago
Which also one of the reasons I loathe the move from open BB forums to Facebook on the niche/ hobby communities. That we are repeating the mistake with discord, is very unfortunate.
- LewisVerstappen 5y ago
  Reddit really has the possibility of integrating Discord's functionality into the site if they make their chat product less shit. That would be the best of both worlds in my opinion.
lordgrenville 5y ago
And in addition even if you're in the server and find what you're looking for, it's very hard to concentrate all the responses to a specific post, so you might find the question but need to scroll for ages to see if someone answered. Not that either of these issues deterred people from using IRC.
nmaleki 5y ago
There are solutions to problems hidden in these chats that will never be found. Personally, I've been using Discord as a powerful search engine. Luckily, the search functionality works well enough to where I can often find what I'm looking for. But this might only be a short term solution to an issue that needs an archive.

dataengineer56 5y ago

> Reddit is democratizing in a sense Apart from the bit where all of the main subreddits (and therefore the front page) are controlled by completely unvetted, unpaid moderators, who tend to be Extremely Online People. I don't understand how Facebook are continuously attacked by politicians for not moderating content well enough when they have towers full of paid moderators, while Reddit continues unaffected. > Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse Does anyone actually care about the metaverse? Everyone I know thinks it's some kind of joke. It seems like Silicon Valley nonsense.

dageshi 5y ago
Facebook gets attacked because politicians believe it can be used to nudge peoples opinions en mass but in a way that's hard to detect. Reddit doesn't because everyone can see what's going on. You might not like it, but you can see it.
- dataengineer56 5y ago
  I'd have agreed with you 10 years ago when the average Redditor was arguably smarter than your typical social media user and each subreddit's alliances were clear. These days I completely disagree and feel Reddit is more dangerous than other forms of social media. The average Redditor still believes that they're more intelligent and believes that they're seeing balanced information (because how can upvotes and downvotes lie?), while being blind to all of the astroturfing and agendas placed by the people who run subreddits.
  - dageshi 5y ago
    Reddit was never and has never been about balanced information, I think the entire purpose of the site was never balanced information it was what was most popular with a particular subs hive mind, 10 years ago we just had different echo chambers. The thing that changed was that new generations of users started to use the site, younger millennials and gen z. And their echo chambers differ from the previous generation of reddit users echo chambers and are broadly incompatible because echo chambers usually edge to the extremes on both sides.

simonebrunozzi 5y ago

> Good! I‘ll go long on them. Nothing specific on Reddit, but I'd like to point out that when you go long on a stock, you should at least try to possess some specific knowledge that most people don't have about that company. Reddit might be great; but if everyone knows about it, then the price is going to reflect that already.

snek_case 5y ago
> Reddit might be great; but if everyone knows about it, then the price is going to reflect that already. I think that's the wrong way to look at stocks. What you're describing goes along with the common belief that all known information is already "priced in". This is silly. The price of a stock reflects the consensus/average estimation of the worth of the company. Your personal assessment is going to depend on what you personally believe in, but you could be holding a minority viewpoint. If 95% of investors believe that a company will have 10B in revenue in 5 years, but you interpret the facts differently and believe (correctly) that the company will make 50B in 5 years, then even though you are basing your estimation on the same facts as everyone else, if the majority interprets the facts incorrectly, then the information is not "priced in". As the company proves itself successful, the consensus estimate will shift. People will reassess their belief that certain outcomes are more or less likely. What matters isn't necessarily having information that other investors don't have, it's interpreting that information better than others, and making more accurate inferences. When it comes to reddit, more specifically, you probably don't have access to any more information than every analyst on wall street, but there's a key difference, which is that most of these people probably have never used reddit, and have a very limited understanding of how it works or its potential. So, in some ways, your understanding of the functioning of reddit, as a reddit user, could actually give you an edge.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  > but there's a key difference, which is that most of these people probably have never used reddit, and have a very limited understanding of how it works or its potential. Why would you think this?
5y ago

Foobar8568 5y ago

I rarely Google without using site at first, reddit, SO/exchange, and two French forums (teaching related queries). Anything else from Google /search engine is garbage.

smolder 5y ago

Stop taking "the metaverse" seriously, please. It's a rich idiots dream, like a digital Fordlandia. I can hardly blame people for trying to follow trends, because following trends can be lucrative. "The metaverse" is just not the one to follow. It's nintendos virtualboy, vision getting ahead of substance, fixing problems we don't have. If it succeeds at all, it will be a testament to societies ability to bend to the whims of rich idiots. In Facebooks case, they should really try their hand at making a 2D world that doesn't lead people to want to die before they try to expand on the whole reality thing.

loa_in_ 5y ago
I'm getting really angry at companies squatting names that are basically common nouns. This practice should be banned. It's something I though was more cyberdystopian-esque not reality, but here we are in the future.
- epistasis 5y ago
  A land value tax solves this.
  - intrasight 5y ago
    A land value tax in the metaverse - I hadn't considered that before. I wonder what cryptocurrency will be used in the metaverse?
    - gomox 5y ago
      You should probably google "Decentraland".
  - Nasrudith 5y ago
    A land value tax for names? Or well copyrighted ones. I suppose brand reputation could have a value. It could also lead to companies cycling names for cheapness. Imagine say using Toyota-2022 as the offical name for Toyota. The notion sounds a bit silly on the surface, but good enough at least for serious classroom discussions and evaluation.

askvictor 5y ago

Eventually, it will go the same way Facebook has gone, and email before that. Was once fun and useful, now, at best, a tool and a chore.

gremlinsinc 5y ago

I feel like there's some of the most foul...obnoxious...people on Reddit...but at least they're not the same people in FB groups... which is to say they're my obnoxious sycophant people. In other words...social media can really showcase the best/worst of people but Reddit kinda at least can give some intellectual content and discussion. I also kinda just 'get' the snark/culture of reddit as it were, and interestingly enough it doesn't matter my political persuasion as there's enough different corners of reddit to find where I fit in. People are also more willing to share their real thoughts when there's some measure of anonymity whether that's good or bad, who knows. Reddit + HN is basically my source of news/new thoughts. Best part of reddit is that topics are generally single groups, where there's like 5 yard sale groups on FB JUST for my city in a county with 45k people in rural utah, on FB nothing's stopping there being 2 or 200 SLC groups, but on reddit - everyone just would go to the one w/ the most subscribers/content/activity.... FB is nothing but memes or people trying to sell something. Of course Reddit going public will probably make it incentivized to turn more of a profit and go that way as well. My only real gripe w/ Reddit is that I can't use the login via Relay on Android because something's jacked w/ my main account... if I go to user/prefs I get an error after a long wait...and it's been reported for a few months and no fix...

kypro 5y ago

I'm so split on Reddit. While I agree with most of what you said the decline in quality of both content and comments, and the extreme moderation which has occurred over the last 4-5 years would really worry me if I was an investor. Presumably as a public company they would come under even more scrutiny for edgy content and feel the need to moderate content even more. And in general as the size of a social site's user base increases, the quality of the content drops as content starts to reflect the common denominator of its users. I also feel like all social media the there are very toxic aspects to Reddit. I used to be very active on there, but after receiving constant abuse and very few constructive replies I now rarely participate in discussions there. Again with the company going public like Facebook and Twitter, Reddit could come under more scrutiny for this. Assuming you buy for a fair valuation I don't think it's a bad investment per say, but I think there are a lot of risks there. I find myself wishing for an alternative to Reddit a lot these days because I really miss the high quality discussions I used to have there 10 or so years ago.

Valakas_ 5y ago
I agree with you about the abuse aspect. That's one thing this could change. I would for example change the voting system to not allow a negative score. It doesn't happen often, but it still doesn't feel good that people disagree and not only do they not upvote, but they downvote until you get negative score. In my opinion if you disagree don't upvote, or at least downvote until 0. So people know the overall sentiment is negative, but there's not need to show how negative it is. If it's so bad to be offesive or innacurate, then report it. But downvoting until it's negative feels really overkill and feels like at the moment everyone not only disagrees, but hates you. The constructive replies you talk about depends on the subreddit. There are subreddits that are literally lifesavers. For example subreddits to overcome emotional abuse and abusive relationships, you'll find support there that is simply amazing and not abusive at all. Or subreddits about certain niches that people are passionate about. Unfortunately toxic people are sadistic and get a kick out of abusing people, so it's bound to happen. Best way is to report it, so the moderators either warn the person or ban them.
- PickledHotdog 5y ago

StevePerkins 5y ago

> Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse I agree. But first they'll have to get on the blockchain, and then build up their autonomous vehicle division. No big deal, just use CRISPR.

SamuelAdams 5y ago

Agreed, one sub in particular is /r/lawncare. There is a very helpful post for beginners that puts together the whole process from spring through fall. This is the kind of non-paid for content shill that makes niche communities really interesting. https://reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/fb1gjj/a_beginners_guide_to_improving_your_lawn_this/ https://reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/fb1gjj/a_beginners_gu...

intrasight 5y ago

I had a Reddit account for five years but never logged in. Until about six months ago when I rediscovered Reddit. I now spend more time on Reddit than the rest of the internet combined. I have a personal account and a work account. For work stuff, it's catching up with Stackoverflow in my technical discussions. For personal stuff, I don't even know of a comparable site. I am a small BI consultancy and I would definitely spend ad money on Reddit once they get their shit together.

chartpath 5y ago

Whenever I need to query the hive mind I just search directly on Reddit now, after a long period of searching in google with the keyword "reddit" included. If I am querying something technical for work or hobby development I use the HN Algolia search. Twitter is the only other social network I keep an account on, but barely ever visit because of the firehose of noise despite having a painstakingly selected list of accounts followed. E.g. lots of journalists doing great work, but also posting a lot of personal life updates that are not relevant to me.

nebula8804 5y ago

Everything you described makes this public offering a potential bad thing. Whats going to happen when activist investors want a certain subreddit/post removed? What about ad companies not liking some content/subreddit? Moderation is going to get very strict. The relative anonymity of reddit may disappear. We have already seen the establishment supposedly co-opt the big subreddits like /r/politics. Now they will focus on snuffing out all the little guys on the platform. Everything you listed as a positive may disappear over time. HN might become what Reddit is now. On the flip side the difficulty of removing posts here/simple upvote system/other limiting features may prevent that from ever happening. There have been attempts to clone Reddit, all have been terrible. Its clear that to create an equivalent, its going to take more than a weekend project.

foobarian 5y ago

BeFlatXIII 5y ago

> An even wilder bet: Reddit can fit nicely into the metaverse (as a news outlet of sorts, on steroids) and even potentially minimize the need for Google Search. Doing so will first require the Reddit team to develop a competent search engine. Searching Google or DDG with site:reddit.com is far better than native Reddit search for topics. The Camas Reddit search is what you need for a power search to find that one post that you swear you've read five years ago. Neither use case is well-served by the current search implementation on Reddit itself.

phkahler 5y ago

>> Anecdotally, a VERY LARGE percentage of my Google searches end in “site:reddit.com” these days. That seems strange to me. Most of my search results don't lead there. This seems like something worth investigating on your part. Maybe google knows you like reddit, tend to follow links there, and hence puts them higher in your search rankings? Is that a thing with google? I think it may be based on my own past experience too.

cloverich 5y ago
OP is adding `site:reddit.com` to tell Google to find results from reddit instead of elsewhere. If their workflow is like mine, it goes 1. enter search, 2. get frustrated with spammy / marketing / ad results, 3. limit to reddit, 4. find thoughtful human with genuine answer / feedback.
rkuykendall-com 5y ago
I think it would be worth investigating on your part as well. Next time you do a Google search that will be heavily populated by blog spam and listicles, append “site:reddit.com” to instead get long user-rank-sorted discussions among actual human beings.
thomastjeffery 5y ago
If Reddit were higher in their search rankings, they wouldn't need to add site:reddit.com to their search words. I also find searching Reddit, especially for introductory advice, to be very commonly useful. Since Reddit's search sucks, I usually use duckduckgo or Google to search it.
Trasmatta 5y ago
I think you misunderstand, OP is purposefully adding "site:reddit.com" to their search query, to only get results from Reddit. Google isn't adding it for them. I do this sometimes too, because it's one of the ways to get actual opinions on something, and not just worthless blog spam.
- phkahler 5y ago

pjc50 5y ago

I would certainly bet on them going up in the short term. However, going public carries more scrutiny, and that means their two existing problems will be catapulted into the public eye at some point, just as they have been for Facebook: - political extremism - very flimsy segregation of NSFW material (and usernames are basically not censored) I doubt they would be dumb enough to do a Tumblr, but it can't be ruled out entirely.

barfingclouds 5y ago

Yeah Reddit’s different because it’s not public. Fuck this news is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. The only thing I could imagine worse is if Wikipedia went public or got bought by saudi Arabian investors

Abishek_Muthian 5y ago

> Reddit is the ONLY place on the Internet where you can simultaneously watch garbage recycled content from TikTok and visit extremely-niche and highly knowledgeable communities in the same session. But for how long I wonder. Those niche communities continue to use Reddit because they can circumvent the dark-patterns and ads usually with a custom client. And those clients depend upon reddit API. We've seen in the past that once the community-focused Internet platforms get large, Especially when they go public then the API restrictions are soon to follow as advertiser's interest becomes primary and the majority users don't care as they're not in for those niche communities.